Barriers to Diversity in Film – A Research Review – Aug 07

national identity. 34% of black and Asian members had not heard of
certain films in the ‘respectable’ category, compared to 4% of white
English, who had heard of them.
Minority ethnic groups had a high degree of familiarity with domestic
TV technologies and high levels of satellite television ownership
among South Asian groups gave them the opportunity to watch many
Bollywood films. These films connect with national cultures and
reinforce South Asian identities. However younger people from these
groups were less engaged with Bollywood, saying these films lacked
reality and had naive plots.
Film genres may be influenced by the gender, social class and ethnicity
of the scriptwriters. Women write a variety of genres and an equal
percentage of women and men (at just over 30%) write comedies, the
most financially successful films at the UK box office (IES 2006:24).
Fewer women write horror films. Some directors argue that the type of
horror films women tend to like are more psychological, emotionally-
driven or character-driven films which have less violence and more
suspense (Everything but the Ghoul in The Guardian Film and Music, 6
April 2007). A low-budget film studio, WARP X, is running Darklight,
an initiative to encourage female horror directors. At least two films
will be made and the company is quoted as saying that a female
perspective on horror will be interesting and the films will also have
female lead characters (The Guardian Film and Music op.cit.)
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